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What consumeristic and somewhat pointless hobby do you have?
The one thing that I personally really got into was mechanical keyboards. It all started with one cheap secondhand Corsair RGB mechanical gaming keyboard that I got when I was 15. I thought it was the coolest thing ever because it was shiny and loud. That led to many different keyboards and keyboard accessories. Notable ones include:
- GMMK Pro 70% keyboard with a metal chassis
- Anne Pro Bluetooth 60% keyboard
- A set of keycaps, which alone cost more than multiple non-fancy keyboards
- A couple of hand-soldered macropads that I never got around to using
... The list goes on. It was fun, but after buying the keycaps, I realized that, for the sake of my bank account and financial stability, I had probably acquired enough keyboards for the time being.
What is your costly and somewhat pointless hobby/obsession?
Lego. They've really honed in on the millennial nostalgia sets. Don't get me wrong, I love building and displaying them, but they're certainly not cheap and I don't want my entire home decor to end up being Lego (even if it is awesome).
Yeah, I've always struggled with the question of what to do with finished Lego builds. They're not small, I live in an apartment, and there's only so much shelf space… Do I take it apart? Dump it in the ocean and contribute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Set it aflame and send it to the sky gods? Donate them to a thrift store?
After admiring a build for a few weeks/months our family breaks them down and sorts them into the great collection. Somewhere around 40-50 little plastic drawers. My wife enjoys fiddling with the organizational structure of the drawers and our kids have tons of pieces they can build whatever crazy things they want out of them. Then those weird creations get displayed for awhile and photographed before getting sorted back into the collection.
We also sometimes pick up Legos at thrift stores like goodwill. Just to pad out and diversify the collection. So by all means donate or sell them to enable crazy hoarders like us!
What kind of bins/drawers do you use? Currently all our lego is in huge IKEA TROFAST chaos bins in one of their bin shelves, but my kid’s been into a lot of lego stuff on Youtube lately and sorting/organizing seems
like a good plan.
Hey, I was on a road trip and having trouble finding it, but now I'm back!
Lately, we have been buying these when we need to expand the collection: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FZVQ08U (the "medium 1 drawer - 6 pack" option)
They aren't perfect but they are affordable and stackable, so it gives good flexibility.
before those it was just miscellaneous drawers we already had.
Here is what our collection is looking like at the moment:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/n3TMeYd4DuERLNn8A
It's in a constant state of reorganization. At first, my wife did it by color, which was really cool looking but not very practical. Now she's switched over to shape/type. which is working out pretty great. She tapes on little pictogram labels when she feels good about a drawer staying as is for a while. Lego organizing becomes her happy place when the weather isn't good for gardening.
That looks fantastic!! Thanks so much for the pics, I love the idea of little pictograms too :)
We do something similar. Every once in a while we sell the bricks in a mixed lot (typically removing and saving the minifigs and special pieces) on our local Craigslist and neighborhood Google Groups.
I like to think of them like jigsaw puzzles. So I leave them assembled until I get a new set, then take it apart and bag it up to build again later. If you really don’t want to keep them around, you could sell them on bricklink too.
I would imagine one reasonable thing to do would be to resell the sets you don't want to put the money towards new ones and just keep repeating that. They have good resale value so it makes that a lot easier.
I know folks who do this with Nintendo games (buy at launch, play until they're satisfied, resell the game for near full price). Some people will buy them at full price if it's close enough to launch just to save the tax.
Get your enjoyment from it and sell them. eBay, craigslist, Facebook, or any of the Lego sites. You'll recoup a decent amount of your cost. Legos hold their value fairly well.
I also live in an apartment and the space struggle is real. What are some of your favorites in your collection? Anything you always keep on display or do you rotate through things?
I have a friend who makes a living with Lego. She does tutorials online for kids on how to build stuff she’s designed.
She’s going to be on the next season of Lego Masters.
I'm in the same boat. I have all of the original Jurassic Park sets sitting unassembled because I don't have any space to display them. $600+ sitting in boxes because I already have multiple shelves of displayed Lego sets and a closet full of even more bins of pieces and sets. Lego has a firm grip on my wallet.
I've also recently gotten into lego, and I actually got a whole shelf for it. It's starting to fill up though, so I might have to start dismantling some of my sets in favor of others...
I have to say though, my favorite right now is the porsche turbo one, mostly because there are so many good MOCs out on rebrickable (especially the one by firas legocars, I built the corvette and it's gorgeous!)
At the start of the pandemic is what hooked me again. As a kid I always loved the Lego star wars sets. And because we didn't really have money I only really got the x-wing. So at the start of the pandemic I was looking at eBay and saw a y-wing for a decent price. So I picked it up.
And then an x-wing. Then the razor crest. Then the Saturn V, Lunar lander, ISS, and Space shuttle. I now no longer have room for anything. So I have about 10 boxes of a bunch of star wars Lego sets. I can't wait to have enough room to display them all.
Luckily, I don't really care for Star Wars or Harry Potter so I'm not really interested in any of those sets.
I do have the lunar lander, ISS, and the shuttle in my bedroom. Saturn V was too big for my liking, but I definitely see the appeal. Have a bunch of other adult oriented sets like floral collection, tree house, and ship in a bottle, as well as some creator 3-in-1s, speed champions, and random other little sets.
I have a bunch of entertainment themed sets in the living room like Optimus Prime, Jurassic Park diorama, Etco 1, and Seinfeld and will eventually get the BttF Deloreon among some other ones to fill out my entertainment center shelf.
I, too, really got started during the pandemic or maybe just before. I try not to look at the estimated cost/value page on my bricklink and stick to scrolling the inventory/moc lists instead.
Bricklink is also a new thing I've come across. I got a rocinante from the expanse and love it. I'm really glad other people make these things.
I love my Saturn V. And while it is hyuge, it does separate into three stages which gives some more display options.
I'm in a similar boat re: display space. My partner got me back into Lego over the last couple years but most of my sets are just sitting in my closet right now because I'm not really sure where to display them yet. Some of his are also waiting to be built. We have a decent excuse for it right now, though; my partner is a recovering hoarder and neither of us wants to add to the stuff in the house too much until we get it cleaned up more.
do you have any recommendations for someone who wants to kinda-sorta get into lego? at maybe 300-500 price point? I want to make something that will take me a long time to build, and I can display it on a bookshelf and have it look awesome, but it won't require me buying special furniture just to display it, and also it'll be a good indicator if this is something I want to start devoting time & money to.
IP I'd be interested in is Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.
I don't really care for Star Wars and I'm not a big enough LotR fan to collect those sets either, so I'm probably not the best person to ask if you want a set centered around those themes. The only Star Wars set I have and will probably ever own is the trash compactor diorama just because I so vividly remember watching that scene with my dad. I will say, the new Rivendell is gorgeous though!
$300-$500 can get you a lot of Lego, or just 1 or 2 really nice sets. That said, for just getting into Lego, I'd start with something smaller and see how you like the experience.
I'm a big fan of the Icons and Ideas themes. They have awesome details and make great display pieces. The lunar lander, space shuttle, orchid, and Ecto-1, are some of my favorites from my collection, and I definitely plan on getting the van Gogh starry night set at some point.
If you like cars, the speed champions theme is also a really good starting point. Low cost, interesting build techniques, and you end up with some great models that take up very little space.
If you end up getting something, let me know what you choose and how you end up liking it!
Wow, Rivendell is beautiful!! I'm thinking, I will start with something smaller & then get that one if the something smaller goes well. Maybe Tales of the Space Age would be a good first starting set? Pretty inexpensive compared to my budget & it's gorgeous. Do you think it looks fun to build is my one concern? Like my favorite part of Lego was always discovering ingenious designs and engineering they did (like wow, they achieved this angle in thus-and-such way or woah I can't believe these shapes in this combination can look like that!) and I don't think this will have that. But, it might be fun to build anyway, especially since it's been aaaaages since I built lego.
I literally just bought tales of the space age yesterday lol!
I've only built the first one (the blue with the comets) so far and, honestly, I wouldn't say it was a particularly enjoyable build. It was very quick, but does looks quite nice. There's also 3 more to build, so maybe I'll change my mind.
In the $50 range, I think the bonsai tree is a great option. The 3-in-1 tiger was also a neat build (and has alternate options) and the beach camper may be one of my next pick ups.
Not sure if any of those speak to you or not, but I think they are more fun and interesting builds than tales of the space age, by far. But, it's Lego, so you really can't go wrong! And any of the will look great!
Ah, I have pretty bad timing, because the tranquil garden would be perfect if I were doing this 3 weeks later!
But, the bonsai looks nice, I think I will get that set! Thanks so much for your help, and here's hoping I love lego as much as I did as a kid!! (and it looks like you can put the pink flowers on the green leaves? which I think would look nicer than either of the ways they have shown)
Of all my hobbies, the most useless one is probably target shooting. Guns are expensive, ammo is expensive, and clay pigeons aren't doing anyone any favors. But it's fun to do, in any case.
The cost of ammo is downright depressing. I stopped going to the rang as much over the last few years because of it.
It's come back down quite a bit, but still not where it was pre-pandemic. I remember being able to get a box of target load shotgun shells for $5 but now the cheapest I can get them is about $9. 9mm has come down quite a bit from where it peaked, though.
Buy online in bulk, it's way cheaper than in stores. Only thing that might be cheaper in stores is 22lr at walmart.
Also, get a few 22lrs and you will never not want to go shooting. I love my CZs that I've got in 22lr, and they get more range time than my 308s and x39s.
I buy 9mm online, but I've found shotgun ammo to usually be more expensive online than at sporting goods stores (where I can buy by the flat) because of shipping. I actually bought 5250 rounds of .22lr several years ago for something like $15/box of 525 and haven't needed any since.
22lr and shotgun %100 agree there, Walmart for both shotgun and 22lr, everything else I buy online. In 2013 with the last panic, I started to buy 22lr everytime it is available at Walmart, right now it's no problem but I finally have enough to weather a couple years of no ammo or stupid high prices. I've got around 40k rounds of it and really enjoy try to do Long-range shooting with 22lr. It's quickly become one of my favorite rounds to shoot, not just because of how cheap it is, but because how difficult it can be to shoot at long distances, where other rifles of mine will do 350 yards (size of my range right now) without really any skill.
22lr is definitely my most shot rifle and pistol round as well. They're just so easy (in terms of mechanics, not long distance accuracy) to shoot. There's definitely some real skill in shooting those long distance!
You should totally get into long range shooting with a 22lr. I bought about 2 years ago now a CZ 457 MTR and it's soo much fun to try and shoot golf balls at a few hundred yards. My range crew and I usually will take out a bag of cheap driving balls and wack a good few down the range and then try and hit them where they land. It's a ton of fun
Oh maaaan another gun to buy. The rabbit hole runs deep (hence the original post :D )
It's quickly become one of my favorite rifles to shoot now, and I've got a lot of white whales I've acquired over the years (M1A sage EBR mod0 in gun metal grey was my latest pickup) but it's now taking a backseat with the 457 MTR
The increase in ammo prices has actually saved me a ton of money. I've gone to the range like twice since Covid but, and I used to go almost weekly.
I haven't bought a gun in almost 4 years, and I used to get 5-6 a year.
There are always other ranged weapons.
Crossbow shares a lot of similarities with rifle, but is cheaper, uses non-expendable ammunition, is quiet and can be practiced at home if you live on some acreage and has minimal maintenance requirements.
Slingshot use and tomahawk throwing are also fun! Just have to be mindful of having a backstop.
I said it somewhere else on Tildes, but I bought a compound bow so I could have a longer, less competitive hunting season and discovered a love for archery. The fact that arrows are reusable and a half day outing to the range costs me nothing as long as I don't break any arrows is a major influencer to that shift. And the initial setup cost be a little over $1,000 including tax and all the accoutrement, about the same as my most recent rifle purchase.
Plus it's way easier to find campsites that I can say up a bow target to have fun. I used to bring my rifles camping just for fun and do some target shooting 5/10 times the campsite I end up finding isn't suitable for that. Maybe a smaller caliber handgun but not for the larger caliber firearms I own.
I actually do have a compound bow, since the gun club I'm a member of has an amazing archery setup. I just haven't taken it out to shoot, yet though! I shot archery when I was a teenager, so it's been a while. Thanks for the reminder!
Although I'm not someone who pays much attention to dressing well or places a lot of importance on it, I have to admit that, on the rare occasions where I got the opportunity, wearing a suit or blazer does make me feel good. The aount of money I've spent on a suit that I've only worn twice is not something I take pride in
I can't help but wonder if this feeling stems from societal portrayals of men as overly confident, strong, power-hungry individuals, which doesn't align with the values I hold dear, but still.
Perhaps, although consider that well fitting suits also feel like they're well fitting and accentuating the good parts of the male physique.
Wearing good clothes also makes one more confident, which does wonders for your posture which does wonders for your confidence too!
Additionally, suits can be quite flashy. A bit of a return to the days of flambouyant and decorative clothing the the Victorians stamped out. Give me a multicoloured brocade over drab grey any day!
Pah! You call that fanciful? I'll take a good ruff and pantaloons to accentuate my lazzi, thank you.
I'm a cg artist who's wordobe is almost exclusively flannels, jeans, and old band t shirts. When i get hone and walk in the door my pants barely stay on 5 mins. I hate having to dress up for anything BUT... My wife gave me a fancy pocket watch for our wedding so when I do have to dress up, I have a custom 3 peice suit I pair with a silk pocket square and my pocket watch with the chain looped from my vest pocket to the button fold. I feel absolutely amazing for the night, but the next day it's right back to caveman attire.
I have come to destroy you, underdog! I am your nemesis, updawg, and only one of us can survive. Also, I think that if we touch, we cancel out and both get destroyed, or something, so watch out for that.
Aah, a worthy opponent. I dreaded this day would come, but, alas, here we are. I've trained all my life for this moment.
Oh boy! I can't wait to watch the 10 episode long power build up...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This will be the best-dressed duel, one for the ages.
I've had to dress up for business. Prêt-à-porter suiting for female bodies is just awful, even at the high end. I've managed to get a couple of high-quality thrift store men's jackets retailored by people who were interested in non-binary clothing, and it's a night-and-day difference.
A well-tailored jacket straightens my back, emphasizes the shoulder/waist differential, and does make me look and feel like I have more of a presence in the room. I've lusted after the gorgeously tailored bespoke suiting from Bindle & Keep and Duchess, but there's no way I can justify the cost.
I’ve been lusting after some Victorian era women’s waistcoat patterns, but I have too many projects in progress to start anything new. It wouldn’t look right without a corset, and I have nowhere to wear such a thing, are also obstacles.
I've always wanted a proper bespoke suit, but this is what has always stopped me. I just can't justify spending that much money on something I'm only going to get to wear a few times a year. I've got a few suited I bought off the rack and had tailored to fit and that's probably almost as good, but it just doesn't feel the same.
Oh wow. That's way more affordable than I was thinking. That is an expense I could probably justify. Thanks for the heads up!
Wow, and here I was just remarking to my wife last night that I love grilling and barbecuing in my bare feet. Feels more…elemental.
I had a job in IT where the dress code was very much casual but nobody told me I couldn't wear a suit and so that's exactly what I did, weird looks be damned.
I buy antique radios, gut them, and affix modern speakers powered by Bluetooth.
My sweet spot is 1930-50 heterodyne radios like Philco etc.
I’m trying to build enough inventory to have a store or something like that, but honestly, the soldering and problem solving the amount of space is pretty fun.
I think I’ve only set two fires early on haha
I think at the end of the day your heart just has to go to where your inspiration lies. I just love old radios.
This is a really neat idea. Have any project photos that you feel like sharing? If not, no biggie. I'm just being nosey.
I’ll fire up my old shit drive tomorrow and share some here!
I am absolutely loving this. Some of the older enclosures have great warmth.
Hahaha, I'm excited as well. Do you ever keep the old speakers to make somewhat period correct in terms of sound quality Bluetooth ones or are the cones rotted away enough to make that difficult? I've always wanted to do similar things with getting old TVs up to modern snuff like a project I saw once that put a Roku in an old CRT.
Please god tell me they didn't do anything too damaging to it, those things are fucking expensive!
Don't worry, it wasn't a quality PVM like a Sony or anything, just an old black and white with only rabbit ear hookups - one I'm sure no one missed.
I tried looking it up but I can only find noninvasive Roku to CRT connections.
But, to your question, no the internal part was simply to avoid spaghetti out the back. The TV was completely intact on the inside with the Roku hitting the lines before it came out the back.
Ah, fair enough then. Sounds like a pretty fun project!
https://ibb.co/PF5nFf9
https://ibb.co/10pV1wB
https://ibb.co/1GgyWCT
Interesting. Recently cleaned out the family basement and found an antique radio unit from the 1920s-30s. Been wondering what to do with it since I wouldn’t dream of throwing it out. Any advice for restoring it?
Reading.
I've talked about my personal library on here before but it's quite extensive (pushing maybe 3k books now). I have a small selection of rare and vintage books, multiple editions of my favorite series, some really cool antique encyclopedia sets but honestly the thing that has cost me the most money was when I bought a kindle.
Now I will buy books on the Kindle for convince and then still buy the physical book for my collection. It was already expensive at the rate that I read, but the addion of the kindle effectively doubled my costs.
Yes I am aware that I technically do not have to buy the physical book, but I really need to.
I don't have a kindle at all, because I refuse to read on a screen. Silly, because I will happily read long articles on a phone, but when reading fiction I have to have a physical book in my hands. There's just something about the cover and the pages that adds to the experience. I think it's because I grew up consuming library books. A lot of them smelled like cigarette smoke which my mum hated, but to me those books smelled 'old' and cozy somehow.
As a kid I would read physical books for hours while sitting in a large grandfather chair with the high back, so now as an adult I want to find the perfect grandfather chair to recreate that experience.
I actually agree with your sentiment about not wanting to read on a screen. I only use my kindle for certain circumstances and most of my reading is still done the traditional way. Although I will say the ink screen of the Kindle is much easier on the eyes than reading from a phone screen, it really does read like paper. The kindle just makes it so I have even more opportunities for reading where traditional books might not be practical.
Oh yeah, I wouldn't judge anyone for using a kindle. I read slowly and take ages to finish a book, so if I go on a holiday and take two physical books with me for two weeks I will still be finishing the second one on the way back. Not everyone is like that, I know many people get through them quickly and that kindle is the replacement for like 6 physical copies they would take otherwise.
Actually, I am back to reading fiction because I’m reading it on my phone.
The screen is backlit and in dark mode, so I can see the text more clearly and I can read laying down in bed without keeping my wife up.
Being able to change the font and text size is also a huge plus.
There's really no right or wrong way to read, just personal preferences. Anything that makes you more enthusiastic about reading is the best way!
I'm in the same boat with Kindle books. I've always been a reader but ever since discovering ereaderiq.com, I've amassed a large number of books I will likely never read, even if I keep reading at the pace of 30-35 books a year. As of this morning, I have 702 unread books and I'm buying approximately two new books a month.
Gotta try and find a way to boost your numbers. I currently average 60-70 books a year. But I also read multiple books at a time which helps a lot. Still i definitely own more books than I can read.
This was one of my main hobbies for years, and I am way too attached to most of my books. I don't have a library or anything, but probably 300-500 books that I've kept hardcopies of because they meant a lot to me. About half are math texts from grad school, and the others are a mix of philosophical fiction, plays, and random anthropology stuff.
We moved last year and my loving wife packed the books for me. Into three boxes. Each weighs at least 200lbs and I still haven't unpacked them since I don't really have anywhere to put them in the new house.
I the future I may not collect books. Gonna slowly move the math books to my office bookshelf, but that'll still leave a couple hundred here needing shelves, and our new place is so small and still very much under construction.
You made me feel less like a hoarder with your comment. That said, I still think I'll end up spending nearly $200 to add a three-volume Mahabharata and two-volume LaTeX guide to my library, even if I suspect I shouldn't buy the LaTeX companion. Actually, I should explore ConTeXt or a non-TeX alternative whose name escapes me instead of investing more in vanilla LaTeX.
The point is: I have several shelves of used books I may never fully read.
Wacky earrings 🌶️🌶️
I have a pair that look like little pink cassette tapes and a pair that look like little peaches, but I don't really have the courage to wear either of them out in public. They were not expensive, at least, but they were still impulse buys. God help us all.
Edit: Forgot to mention I'm male. Yeah, that is a critical missing piece of context.
You got this! Do it!
First of all - like @WTFisthisOMGreally rightfully noted - you got this, and you should do it!! Secondly, what might help give you the courage to wear them is to pair them with other 80s era clothes? Either way, you got them for a reason, now its time to shine and have fun with them!
omg i have a pair of puffy cheeto earrings and they're my favorite
Omg I love wacky earrings, what are some of your favorites?
I have ones that look like zipper pulls, goldfish in bags, cinnamon buns, real tiny watches, "daggers" that look like they're stabbed through the earlobe...
I have the goldfish bowls! Some others I like are acorns, gummy bears, fall leaf clusters, skeletons, bacon, donuts, seashells…
Oh those all sound adorable!
A few years ago I passed up a pair of fishbowl earrings and they STILL haunt me. I keep scraping Etsy but none of them are as cool as the ones in my memory.
Back in the late 80s my parents bought a restaurant and my mom waited tables there. She got into collecting wacky and tacky earings because her tips would be better the crazier or gaudier her earings were.
This was pre-internet so she'd have to go trawl flea markets and occasionaly whatever places the mall had like Claire's.
It's pretty cool that people noticed them that much! She must have had some spectacular ones.
I love wacky earrings! My favorites at the moment are gummy worms, and little sushi rolls :)
I love whacky earrings! Sadly have a nickel sensitivity, and most whacky earrings use nickel. Luckily if I find a cute pair of dangling earrings that use a hook to go through the ear, I can buy sterling silver replacement hooks from a craft store and then I can have some whacky earrings. :)
Wait, they sell things that are NOT yoga pants for soccer moms? Now I have to check it out...
(I somewhat regret making this thread because everybody here is giving me ideas of more things to needlessly purchase...!)
Have you tried any Lululemon knockoffs? There are a lot of similarly styled items on Amazon. I haven't tried any yet and I don't have any actual Lululemon items to compare the quality. Just wondering if you have and can compare.
Fountain pens. I bought one on a whim, I don't even write by hand often. But I'm trying to write more and work on my penmanship (to at least be legible when trying to be fast).
The fountain pen community is by and large fantastic. Pens can be under $5 or over $1,000. Every shade imaginable is available as fountain pen ink. They're not intimidating and I personally find them to be a comfy and fun writing experience.
Man, I just got into them half a year ago and keep 3 different collours inked up all the time now.
They also inspired me to finally start writing and as a dyslectic I'm finally falling in love with my native language due to something as mundane and stupid as my fountain pens! (writing short stories in long hand now)
I've tried so many, yet the one that keeps working - no matter what - is a Wing Sun ripoff of a Parker vacumatic I got over five years ago.
I've had Lamys and Twisbis shit the bed on me, but that Wing Sun is still going strong with a Vampire Red currently inked up. It's my go-to marking pen for essays.
Diamine oxblood has a special place in my heart (pun absolutely intended!) and in my DM notebook! I'ma also a fan of Noodler's inks in general. They have great tones that flow well in most of my very cheap pens.
The only issue I have is finding notebooks that can stand up to this kind of ink. I usually end up going with watercolor painting books, which work okay. I really need to find something like a drafting notebook that has decent enough paper.
Have you tried any Mnemosyne notebooks? The paper is very fountain pen friendly and has a bunch of different sizes. I personally love them and use them for note taking.
Seconding Mnemosyne. I got a notebook for my dad along with a pen for Father's Day, and he's loving it. Personally I use a binder and some decent paper from Amazon, but the Mnemosyne notebook paper was so incredibly smooth. It's way better than what I'm using.
I haven't but I will keep them in mind the next time I'm buying. I really like that they seem to have 5mm grid lining available on (almost?) everything. Usually I have to buy actual laboratory notebooks to get nice paper with 5mm grid. Right now I still have a few OG Moleskines that I picked up when the local art supply shop closed down. This was before their quality went to shit, and iirc I got them for like $1 each.
Well past hobby, approaching addiction for me. I have six inked ATM and many more cleaned and slumbering, just waiting their turn. Ink galore as well. And fountain pen friendly paper from all around the world must also be catalogued as part of the obsession.
Ooh, can you recommend a decent starter pen, or point me in the direction of some more information? Awhile back, I bought a gift set that, unbeknownst to me, included a cheap fountain pen. I loved writing with it, but the tip broke, and refills don't work well with it. I've been wanting to get a better fountain pen ever since, but my knowledge of pens is limited to the nice Parker ballpoint I have.
I fear I may end up with fountain pen mountain, but it's a risk I'm willing to take, lol.
The fountain pen subbreddit is good.
There are a handful of cheaper pens that people always go with.
Pilot kakuno or Pilot metropolitan. Really good for the price.
Platinum preppy. Cheap but won't last long term.
Pilot V-pen. Disposable and non refillable. These are really cheap if you get a box of them on eBay from Japan.
TWSBI Eco. Has a plunger filler thing so if you want to do bottled ink it makes it super easy... but still cheap.
??? I'm missing a few
For ink I either use plunger pens (idk what they're called) like the TWSBI eco, or I refill cartridges with a blunt syringe (pen stores will often sell these). I exclusively use Pilot Iroshizuku inks but that's kind of just me.
Thank you, this is super helpful! I like the look of that Metropolitan. Good to know those cartridges can be refilled easily, too. The reviews mention a "converter" to switch from cartridges to refilling by sticking the pen into a jar of ink, and it sounds like that may be the plunger you're talking about. I'm definitely drawn to reducing plastic waste and having a variety of inks to choose from.
I can feel my wallet cowering in fear already, lol.
The converter is a little plunger thing as well, ya. The TWSBI, the whole pen is a plunger thing so its a bit less fiddly IMO but the pilots write better
The pilot metropolitan and kakuno use basically the same nibs IIRC, just different bodies.
Realistically if you don't go buying rando shiny pens all the time and you only buy different inks occasionally, it's not too expensive. My basic rules are that I only carry a pen that I can afford to loose and I only buy pens I'm willing to EDC. So I own a few pens but only so I can replace a lost or damaged pen when that happens.
Personally I use a TWSBI Eco-T, and a Kaweco Sport. A couple of people here touched on inks and filling systems, but one other suggestion would be to get something with swappable nibs, or cheap enough pens you can get a couple of different nib sizes and try them out.
My TWSBI is a medium nib, and I'm so happy I went with that. My Kaweco is an extra fine (as a pocket pen, I wanted something that could write in small text fields when out and about) and if it was my first pen I probably wouldn't have continued in the hobby. I find it scratchy and don't like my handwriting nearly as much with such a thin line weight.
I love my Liliput and thankfully stopped there after a TWBSI eco. Still would love to find a smaller vanishing point one, but for now I'm good.
The fireblue Liliput is such an expensive temptation. I tried to scratch the itch with a Kaweco Sport, but it's just so pretty...
In the off chance you decide to scratch it, I HIGHLY recommend ordering from the nibsmith (or getting a nib from them).
When you order, there's a free option to "Tune & Smooth", which helps it write a little better. It's free, just takes them a little more time to ship it.
They're great pens, but the nibs are a little inconsistent, and getting a nib from them (again if i'd known would've just gotten the pen) really helped.
It's been about a year now since I fell down the rabbit hole but I love my fountain pens. For work I have to do a fair amount of writing that gets looked at once by someone in an office then thrown out so it's nice to have fun writing it. After the several different brands I've tried I've fallen in love with Sailor. Both their pens and ink are amazing. Currently I rock a Pro Gear Slim in medium with Shikiori Yamadori.
What kind/colour of Pro Gear Slim do you have, out of curiosity? There's so many cool ones it seems like I'm constantly discovering a new colourway.
My grail pen is a Hachimonjiya Ginzan Snow Sailor PGS. Someday...
I currently have a fully clear Pro Gear Slim and have been eyeing the Koi color for some time but am biding my time for a pen show at the end of September. Even though I love Sailor my grail pen is still the Namiki Origami Penguin. Pilot has great products and I fell in love with the design as soon as I saw it. That being said though Taccia has some pens that have tempted me as well since they seems to be a subsidiary of Sailor.
I've falled out of love with fountain pens, but I attribute a big part of my success in university to collecting them. I loved trying out fancy shimmer inks, color coding my notes, and playing around with flex nibs.
Even though the Pilot VP was my holy grail pen, I found myself mostly using various colors of Twisbi Ecos since they were so easy to fill and hold.
I think the real danger with fountain pens is with all the adjacent supplies. Special inks, bleed-proof paper, and all the unique nibs really do add up especially when you want to try out everything the hobby has to offer.
For real. I've bought so many cleaning syringes, waterproof inkpads/stamps for pretty swatching, inkwells, etc...
I'm trying to curb the impulse to get more pens to have inked up by looking into a glass dip pen. I'd like to be able to switch colours for headers/underlines/etc.
Hobby electronics. I have more diodes and servos and little Arduino kits and cables and specialty CANBUS chips than I'll ever need, and usually when I start a new project none of them can be reused either...
Same here, it’s a legit addiction. I started with basic home automation using home assistant running on a raspberry pi. Now I have esp32s and 8266s all over the place and most of the data they collect and functions they serve are completely useless in my daily life.
That being said, of all the pointless hobbies out there, diy electronics can be fairly cheap when you don’t mind waiting on aliexpress shipping times.
I also have that problem - I have two Raspberry Pi Zero W's that I still haven't put to use yet. Any day now.
PiHole?
I was using mine to feed the public ADSB-C flight info, but then the owner sold it under shady circumstances and I quit feeding, so as soon as I have time I’m repurposing it into a PiHole because I’m allergic to ads. :P
Coffee and mainly espresso. I started with a $20 water kettle, an aeropress, and cheap amazon grinder in college, not really having a kitchen. Honestly, with good water and good coffee, that would get you basically 95% of what the coffee itself has to possibly offer.
Now a few years year I have literally every coffee brewer imaginable, two grinders with one only for espresso, and an ECM E61 espresso machine. I justify it as something I use ever day (sometimes multiple times a day), will never go 'obsolete' and can have parts replaced.
For most this is completely unnecessary, but I do enjoy espresso over filter coffee most days, and this machine/grinder combo I feel has made a substantial improvement to my cup and morning ritual--It's something I can look forward to each and every morning.
Now that I've got my grinder and my cold brew pot, my only expense is the brand themselves.
Local coffee roasters we're solid, but I'm paying the same price for double the amount of beans now that we have a Costco. Now if only they can keep the Hawaiian vanilla hazelnut in stock.
All the equipment may be quite expensive but I think speciality coffee itself is a genuinely good things, speciality roasters tend to actually care that their coffee is sourced ethically with farmers being paid well. That's a good trend and the fact the coffee actually tends to taste better as well (as long as you like light roasts) is just the coffee cherry on top
Absolutely, and honestly that’s one of my favorite aspects about it. I’ve visited a few micro mills in Central America, and the third wave speciality coffee movement is what allows these small growers to even participate in the market at all. In commodity coffee it’s otherwise a game of area—If you cannot grow in massive quantities, you have almost no other choice to compete on quality.
These small growers are what push specialty coffee forwards. I believe the “breakthroughs” in new coffee flavors will come from how coffee is grown and processed, rather than how it’s roasted or brewed.
Hah, yes the rabbit hole for chasing the best espresso runs deep. I started with a Aeropress as well, then moved to a cheap Saeco Poemia. Been using an Expobar Office Lever HX machine at home for the last 6 years, and a Gaggia Classic Pro at our cabin. I've had to resist the urge to drop $6k on a La Marzocco Linea (my dream machine).
Tell me about it I was up at 3 AM last night mixing my own water recipes LOL
Oohhh do share! This is something I'm looking at since we have an RO filter at our sink and that by itself is bad for espresso.
I’m no expert but have been following some recipes here. I started with the Rao recipe. I don’t have three different vessels than I can mix together the buffer and alkalinity solutions (and honestly it feels like a ton of work) so instead I chose a recipe, and figured out how much of the dry ingredients I would need for about the 3 liter bottles I do have. You’ll probably need a .00g scale.
https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/diy-water-recipes-the-world-in-two-bottles/
I’m sure my method isn’t accurate enough to try out different highly similar recipes, and I probably couldn’t tell the difference anyways. Way better than the extremely hard water I have as tap however.
Ahh very cool! I would indeed need a more accurate scale. Thanks for the info!
I love collecting kimono. I think I have about 15 kimono at this point. There's a little shop in Japan that sells second hand kimono online and I've ordered from them many times. I mostly look for hand painted designs, embroidery and gold thread. Most of what I have are houmongi (kimono with designs that flow across the seams). I haven't yet been able to afford a furisode (super formal, long trailing design) but I'd like to own one someday. The oldest one I have is from the 40s. My favorite one I got through Etsy from a seller in Australia. I'm weird in that I like wearing them even though I have nowhere (and no reason) to wear them. They're totally impractical and I can't bring myself to cut them up for the fabric (some people make use of the fabric and make little pouches, scarves, etc.) I feel like displaying them on the wall is nice but I wanna wear them and feel prettyyy! So the only purpose they have is so I can swan around my house and feel pretty in them.
Would you share the shop please?
Sure! It's https://www.kimonoya-japan.net/
The site is a bit rough but they have a lot of inventory. I like getting their emails. They don't go crazy sending a bunch of stuff. The pictures aren't the best but they take the time to highlight any flaws, stains, etc. They grade items from A to D depending on the amount/severity of flaws. I don't always go by the letter grades though. I've bought a C grade kimono and it looked great because the print disguised any small stains. I tend to avoid any items that have long fold marks/stains or big patches of discoloration. Aside from all of that, the site is also just fun to browse. Their shipping can vary. They went through an ordeal recently where shipping went up to about $80 shipping to U.S. but I think it's been resolved. I use Paypal for payment and shipping usually takes about 7 to 10 days for me. I must say, the photos online do not do them justice! They're more vibrant and impressive in person.
Wow, I can’t believe how cheap some of those are! I would have expected the cheapest to be a couple hundred bucks. I’m trying extremely hard not to buy something frivolous right now! Thanks for sharing :)
FWIW, I bought some kimono and hakama from a site a few years ago.
Their site pointed out that they loved to see all kinds of folks enjoying their traditional clothing and specifically did not regard it as a form of cultural appropriation.
I've read similar statements before as well. Honestly, I'd love to be able to wear one of my kimono as a formal jacket/coat when going out but I live in an area where that sort of clothing wouldn't be received very well. If you don't dress up in wranglers and a cowboy hat, yer weird. I also wonder if some of my hesitation has to do with internal conflict, since I have Japanese and Korean ancestry. I'm kidding!
Board games. I've built up a decent collection (60-70 games, a lot of them small box) since I got introduced to the hobby a few years ago by a work colleague. Unfortunately I don't have a regular social group to play with so they're mostly collecting dust. If I had a group, I wouldn't call it pointless.
I did go through a phase of "cult of the new" and I bought games that looked interesting from the BoardGameGeek description and screenshots, although I didn't do proper research to see if it was a game I'd like mechanically. That phase has now stopped and I only add to my collection if I know it's a game I'd really like (either by play-testing on BoardGameArena or from a friend's collection) or it's one where I know it'll get played - like some of my colleagues say they don't like board games so I choose a light game like Dixit since it's quite accessible.
It was especially awkward moving country with them, so I'm aiming to reduce my collection somehow by donating the unwanted games to friends, if they'll take them.
Oh, I feel that. We have a tonne of boardgames. Some of our favourites we will take with us when visiting others, and do play every now and then, but we have a lot of fantastic games collecting dust. Our collection is far too big to actually play all of them with friends and family, and we usually stick to ones we know, but I still couldn't bear to sell any of them
Which ones are your favourite? Are you a 'trying out new stuff all time' or do you also love your classics? I think if I had to make a top 5 of mine I would probably pick Catan, Secret Hitler, CAH, King of Tokyo, and Bears Vs Babies.
Yeah, it's definitely hard to bring out some of my heavier games. Spending 30 minutes explaining rules kills the momentum of an evening. Lately I've been playing with work people, mostly party-type games to entice them to come and have a few drinks doing so. I would include Just One in the list below, since it's one of my favourite party games but I work with a lot of people whose first language is not English, so it makes it difficult to play.
Go-to work games:
I definitely have a few unplayed games I'd like to try out, but I do have my go-to favourites to play, which tend to fall into the abstract genre, games like Onitama, Patchwork. 2 player competitive games are definitely my jam. The colleague who introduced me to the hobby was also the one who would play those games with me during lunch breaks and it was always cut-throat!
Favourites:
My criteria for new purchases is that it has to have some unique hook or mechanic that isn't fulfilled by a game already in my collection. No point having 5 different worker placement games that play similar.
We own sushi go! One of the ones that doesn't always make the cut, but it's one of the ones I like to pack if we have extra space after the easy games have gone in. I totally feel you on needing to explain first. We often end up with things like card against humanity or card games or exploding kittens because it's easy and quick.
Since you mentioned loving werewolves, I feel like you would also enjoy Secret Hitler, which is the same idea - try to hide your identity and deceive others, or try to figure out who is lying. That said, it's 5 players min and most fun with 6 or 7, so it would definitely collect dust easily without a group to play with. Ours doesn't get played that much.
I am going to look into some of your favourites, I really want more good two players. We have some 'you can play with two people' games, but they are more fun in a group setting and miss a little with just two. Games designed for a max of two have a different feel to them and we barely own any of those.
I never played the original Sushi Go! Just the Party edition, which has customisable menus (also including the original). For newbies to the hobby, I do go for the lighter, quicker games, so that I can eventually bring out Star Wars: Rebellion ;)
Cheers for the Secret Hitler recommendation. I've heard good things about from the boardgames subreddit, but never looked deeper into it. I doubt I'll be pick it up tbh, I have a few social deduction games already, and I also work with a few Germans so getting it to the table may be extra hard hah.
Have a look on BoardGameGeek for your games collection. There's ranking of how suitable each game is per player count. It does help to gauge the community voting, when it says "2-6 players" but is crap at 2p. Depending on your preferred genre, there's a lot of 2p abstracts with the GIPF series. I can recommend Star Realms for a 2p deck builder game (base game is sufficient, expansions can swing the game wildly). Also I mentioned Hive above, if you're getting that, go for the Pocket version as it's easier to carry around and play on the go. It also comes with two extra insect tiles over the standard edition.
Yep, board games for me too, though I try to sell on those I don't love, I still have far too many and ones I've not played for years.
My favourites, of those I own, are probably Trickerion, Age of Steam, Food Chain Magnate, Bus!, Pax Pamir, Brass: Lancashire and Agricola.
You certainly go for the heavy games! I remember playing Agricola with a friend, but couldn't get into it. It also didn't help that he didn't go easy for the first few playthroughs while I was still grasping the rules and good ways to build my engine. When you keep losing by a large margin, it doesn't make the game endearing.
My primary source of board games is Gen Con. I shop by which box art catches my eye. Thankfully, most games there have a generic high-detail airbrushed fantasy style, so the visual standouts are no more than 10% of the booths (which is still a lot of games).
Same! I've recently had to move to Florida, and don't know anyone, and I'm not a fast friend maker
TTRPG books.
I have every single released Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition book (40+), even including adventures that I have no intention of ever running (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat for example). They continue to release new books every few months and I continue to buy them.
On top of this I have a number of 3rd party D&D books including Neverland 5e (if you want to play a D&D campaign in Neverland), Humble wood (if you want to play a D&D campaign as super cute bird races), and Odyssey of the Dragonlords (a sprawling Greco-Roman style campaign set in the fleshed out world of Thylea, in my opinion the best 5th edition D&D campaign ever produced, 1st or 3rd party).
I have a bunch of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition books, Cyberpunk Red books, Vampire the Masquerade 5th edition books and I have the rule books for Mörk Borg, Blades in the Dark, Monster of the Week, and once I get the physical copies Mothership.
Feasibly this is more content than I believe I could ever run in my lifetime but I'll continue to buy it anyway because I love TTRPG's.
I have a pretty decent TTRPG book collection myself, or at least I like to think so. I could run D&D 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions (which take up 2 of my 3-4 shelves of books), though I didn't really buy many adventures, just the player focused stuff and DM/MMs.
I've also got Pathfinder 1st edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, P2e playtest book, Blades in the Dark, Legend of the 5 Rings 5th edition, Scion 1st & 2nd editions, Paranoia, and a bunch of lesser known ones because I like the oddball games.
I also technically own half of the black box for Invisible Sun, but that lives at my friend's place since he was running the game for us and needed the materials (and their secrets) on hand.
I played Pathfinder with a friend once, I enjoyed it although I find it a bit too crunchy, 5e's crunchy enough for me haha.
I'm finding outside of my encyclopedic knowledge of 5e's mechanics (the pains of being a forever DM) I'm preferring games with fewer dice and easy to understand mechanics.
Never heard of Invisible Sun, sounds really cool and Monte Cook is always interesting. Would you suggest it?
The world the Monte's made with Invisible Sun is super interesting, everything's high high high magic and very surreal. Think people with books for heads, a demon that is a very exclusive bar where the elite hang out, and every character lives in a neighbourhood that the entire playgroup designs together. Basically any string of descriptive adjectives is possible, and all of this is layered on top of a world that is just being rediscovered after some massive devastating war/spell was cast. The characters are just returning from being woken up from what you and I think is reality but is really called the Shadow, where they all had normal identities and lives and no idea about the magical world of the Actuality. You can choose the tone of your campaign, but I'd say that it's somewhere between Discworld and The Magicians (tv show, if you haven't heard of it I do recommend it. Very dramatic young wizards whose magic runs on trauma).
That being said, the arrangement of the books is a bit of a nightmare and the mechanics aren't terribly well described. There are a lot of holes and to make a character you need to flip back and forth between at least 2 books. A number of mechanics aren't appropriately laid out and there are points where things just break down and you have to make something up to continue.
In terms of classes, they don't seem particularly balanced to me. There are four-but-actually-five classes: Vances which are more or less D&D wizards (note the name of the class, a nod to Jack Vance) who prepare their spell slots which are literal physical slots in a sheet with their spell cards coming in a few sizes, so the more big spells you prepare the less diverse your casting is. Then there are the Goetics which can summon angels and demons and have them work for you, if the summoning goes right. Otherwise there might be trouble. Next are the Makers that create magic items through a complicated system with failure points built in. You might end up with a very powerful hat with a curse unintentionally. I'm told that there are some big problems with how the creating works out as you go through it, though. Finally, there are Weavers, the class I played. They get a few cards with lists of words that define what kinds of aspects their spells can encompass, and a handful of words that are antithetical to the kind of magic they're making that they have to avoid. They pick a word from two different cards and then imagine an effect based on the combination of those words. I would create spells like "space distorts and now we see the enemy as half the distance to us while he sees us as twice as far away" letting us attack in melee while the baddie still had to move up to get to us. In my experience, this class is limitlessly powerful, stopped only by their spellcasting points and their imagination. The magic is a whole lot of fun, but takes a solid knowledge of the relative power levels of spells and their effect, as well as the colors of magic (themes, basically, as different magics stem from different realities) and when it comes down to it, every single spell is a negotiation with the GM and takes time away from the table.
There's so much more to the game that I don't honestly have time to write out, but the short summary is that the world is outstanding but the system itself is flawed as it focuses more on flavor than mechanics. But if you want a narrative world where the weirdest things you see in your dreams actually happen, Invisible Sun is it!
Thanks so much for the super in-depth response. Soundsreally cool and absolutely mind-bending. I'll need to look into it a bit more but I'm definitely interested.
Oooh. Which books are your favorite?
For D&D 5e I really enjoyed playing Curse of Strahd, Dragon of Icespire Peak (DM), and Icewind Dale. Wasn't a huge fan of Out of the Abyss, I reckon it could be great fun but I don't think our DM was quite ready fir it (it was the first campaign he ever did as a DM and I think it was a bit much). Outside of adventures, the PHB, DM Guide and Monster Manual are indispensable but Xanathars Guide to Everything is always by my side when running sessions. It's such a great book!
I'm currently DM'ing Odyssey of the Dragonlords for two groups and both of them are loving it. It's a 3rd party adventure for 5e written by a few guys that used to work for Bioware on franchises like Mass Effect and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. In my opinion, right out of the book it's a top tier adventure with an amazing setting, wonderful characters and a cool story, but with some tweaking and work on the DM's part it's a once in a lifetime TTRPG, truly magical. There's a fantastic community on Discord who are really friendly armed with a ton of resources to help make it one of the best D&D adventures ever made.
In regards to Call of Cthulhu, I've got Doors to Darkness and Berlin - The Wicked City. Have played one of the scenarios from Doors to Darkness which was fun but haven't used the Berlin book. Playing Call of Cthulhu in Weimar Berlin sounds awesome though.
In regards to VtM I've only got Fall of London. Haven't played Vampire outside of a silly one-shot where the players were vampires in Glasgow. They spent the night in the Garage (a nightclub in Glasgow) and then fought a gang of neds afterwards. It was fun but I think a longer campaign would be better.
For Cyberpunk Red I recently got the Tales of the Red book which has a bunch of small arcs or one-shots (that could be strung together to form a loose campaign I reckon). Haven't actually played Cyberpunk Red but one of my groups is dying to do so so I might try and pull something together shortly.
Guitar. It made sense to collect gear in my early 20s when I was gigging, but now I only play in the bedroom and still find myself buying pedals and guitars.
I'm hopeful I'll soon start building my own pedals. I'm sure it's expensive, but may save a little bit instead of buying pedals.
Ah yes, as they say, the correct number of guitars is the amount you currently have + 1. Let's face it, the quest for toan never ends. Just need that new amp, pedal, other.. and you'll get the sound you're chasing.
I speak from experience having a 100w full stack valve amp in my cave at home...
From the bicycle crowd I heard the numbers of bikes to own is n-1 where n is the amount of bike your spouse tolerates before separating from you, but I guess it comes down to your priorities.
This sounds a lot more like artistic expression and creativity than consumerism.
Lego's already been brought up by another user, but that's a big one for me too. In a similar vein, my figure collecting (which I'm getting out of because it's getting a little too expensive for my liking) has overlapped with the "building cool shit" aspect of Lego and has led to a pile of Japanese model kits (mainly mecha musume kits) and a few garage kits (figure kits bought from artists or artist circles to be painted and assembled by the buyer, instead of buying prepainted figures from a company) building up in my closet alongside the Lego. I have most of the kits I want so I won't be buying as much as I have in the last little while. Space is the bigger issue for now, hence them being in the closet.
Pokémon cards are another thing I've gotten back into recently, and I'm torn between re-buying what I had in my old collection and getting the new stuff. Shiny cardboard can be quite a money sink.
Pokémon got me during the pandemic. I was buying vintage and modern. Regret all the modern I wasted money on, wish I had just bought vintage stuff.
The modern cards look great but they don't hit the spot like the old stuff does. I think I'll be better off focusing on the older cards for now. Thankfully I have a good enough visual memory to remember a lot of the cards I used to have, so finding them again shouldn't prove too difficult - prices might be another story, though...
Fancy wine. It's pretty pointless because often the $15-30 stuff is usually really good, and you can find some gems in the "party wine"/under $10 range. The more you learn and try and the more wine people you hang out with, the more the avg per bottle price tag escalates...
Took a wine class in college and being basically forced to taste different types of wine made me love it. Wine lore is crazy, and you can ramble on and on about the bottle you bought to share to the people you are sharing with because hey, free booze.
Having friends who know wine is great for this. A mate of mine worked for a bottler down in Hawkes Bay, and her birthday parties are all wine themed. We bring our best cheap bottles, and she provides the rest. It's how I leaned that Lebanese wine is fucking amazing.
This is actually why I've kept my wine "hobby" to myself. I like to go to tastings and such, but at the end of the day, I'm very happy with a $10-$15 bottle and don't want to spend more than that.
Funny thing - we never set out to get fancy wine. But our region has some stellar local winemakers, and we joined a bunch of the wine clubs to get access to the double-secret "we only made 10 cases of this" bottles.
As the region has been discovered more widely, the price of those incredible bottles has reached heights we're no longer comfortable with, though they're probably more in line with their value in the marketplace. But they're no longer of equal value to us, especially for bottles with "hold for 5 - 10 years before drinking" recommendations.
So we've taken the opportunity to explore more underappreciated regions, and gotten some excellent wines and interesting varietals we wouldn't have known about otherwise, usually in the $10 - $20 sweet spot.
Also, without the opportunity to entertain during the pandemic, wine just... accumulated. We were running out of rack space, and had to cut back buying drastically.
And it's just a sad life failure to open a bottle of wine that's been held too long, like hoarding to the point where what's hoarded becomes useless. However, it's kinda cool now to be able to host a 5+ year vertical tasting for friends.
One of the advantages of ice wine, like Sauternes, is that the high sugar and acid content preserves it for a long, long time. If you store it away from light, at a somewhat cool temperature, you can keep it for a decade or more. Many ice wines actually improve with longer aging if they're stored appropriately.
That being said, once the bottle is open, it doesn't keep well at all. Ice wine is best served in small cordial glasses, sipped very slowly, to a group of enough friends that you can finish the bottle at one sitting.
Finally, you develop a palate by drinking wine, and ice wine is actually a great place to start because the flavors are so concentrated. Just take a sniff and then sip, hold it in your mouth. Think about the flavors and aromas it reminds you of, and how it changes as it hits each part of your tongue. Swallow (or spit if you're just tasting and don't want to fall over by the end of a session), and notice how the remaining flavors evolve. Paying attention and thinking about what you perceive gets you more than halfway to appreciating wine.
Ooh, I bet that's lovely! We actually don't get ice wine much because neither of us prefers sweet wine in general, and we haven't had any big gatherings since the pandemic either. But I've still got a bottle of this saved up for the next holiday dinner.
I'm very concerned for my future wine purchasing habits because I was offered a free glass of 2018 Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Meursault-Charmes premier cru without knowing the price during the meal. I majorly enjoyed that glass -- far more than any other white wine I've had (though admittedly it's mainly $15-30 bottles and probably none more than 80-100). I then cried inside when I saw the cost for a bottle.
My current strategy is sticking with whiskey and then asking a somm friend for suggestions for cheaper wines.
Magic: The Gathering.
This game is a money vampire. I've been playing it for 10 years now and I can't easily imagine how much I have spent on tiny pieces of cardboard. I'm currently building up legacy lands (estimated value of deck £8k), and am continuing to play modern and pioneer.
Game is real fun all the time though.
It's very easy to play it on Cockatrice or Tabletop Simulator for free with friends, or even to proxy out the decks so you don't have to pay for cards. Or, if you're good at draft, it's totally possible to play Arena pretty much free. I bought the $20 gems pack and haven't needed any further currency by just doing my best to get good.
... Nonetheless I continue to build my theorycraft EDH decks to goldfish against each other, even though I only really play draft in person. Finding budget replacements for expensive EDH staples is kind of addicting.
I don't really enjoy digital magic unfortunately! Even with friends online, the digital versions of the game feel very detached and cold as opposed to in a LGS even with complete strangers. I'm a big fan of the group emotions in a game where the unexpected happen. The big plays, the incredible (bad) luck. To me it doesn't feel the same online.
I do know people who grind mtgo/arena and while I respect their dedication, it's just not for me.
Totally fair! I like being able to crank out games of draft when I don't feel like dealing with weird LGS clique stuff sometimes, but there's definitely a rush playing in-person that can't be beat.
I'm a bit sad and a bit happy that I left my last company, and therefore my playgroup. We used to play every day during lunch. When I left I pretty much stopped playing completely. I still have a couple of decks, but singles no longer use up a significant portion of my budget!
I feel like a lot of my hobbies are pointless and consumeristic... Been definitely cutting back tho once I found my "endgames" for everything!
I used to do a lot of keyboard swapping but ended up settling on an Ergodox Ez with Boba U4T switches and GMK Sanshui keycaps, but I was recently tempted by a Kickstarter with a wireless Ergodox-style board.
I love shoes and fashion, I've stopped buying as many sneakers but recently picked up a pair of Lost and Found Jordan 1's.
I have a couple of unfinished Lego Star Wars sets waiting to be built.
And let's not even go into my Steam Library.
Recently I've been cutting back in favor of creating rather than consuming, and also just visiting places for travel instead!
The Steam library doesn't count as a hobby at this point. The hobby is painstakingly sorting over two thousand games into accurate categories for what I think the game is.
Steam would tell you that Final Fantasy, Dark Souls, and Fallout are all RPGs but when I'm in the mood for a certain style of game I need accuracy! Which means double checking the store page for each and scouring screenshots...
Which don't carry over to my Steam Deck, at least that I can find so far.
There was an easy sorting tool that I used when my library was around 500 games but I've basically tripled it since then and been too lazy to reorg again :(
I'll admit, I'm intrigued by the idea of an auto sorter but also wary because the last time I used one I hated the categories it put everything in and ended up redoing it all by hand.
The only thing I kept was titling my multiplayer game category (1 Multiplayer) so I can easily find the multiplayer games section and not have to faff down to the M's for it.
I don't know if it counts as pointless, since it's a hobby so it's only point is to bring me joy, but I have a large doll house with about 10 rooms. I got it as a kit and painted and assembled it, so now the next phases are to decorate every single room. I am going for a combination of buying stuff like furniture pieces and assembling them, and trying to make my own pieces (like making a tiny banana out of clay, or sewing tiny curtains).
It's going to be a thousand little purchases rather than one big one, and it will be stretched out over birthdays and christmas gifts and purchases over years, but I think it will still costs hundreds to get the whole thing completed.
I got bitten by the mech keyboard bug too. Technically it started a decade ago, but it started out with just 3 keyboards over 10 years, which isn't that far beyond the norm. It kicked into overdrive right around the time of the pandemic or maybe a bit before, and now I have 10 with 3 more group buys still pending and tons of different switches, keycaps, and PCBs. Oops.
That's about run its course I think, though. I have most of what I want in that hobby by now, with the number of community projects piquing my interest having dropped steeply.
What killed the hobby for me was I wanted to move to a more cable free desk, but all mech keyboards were wired. I think this is changed a bit now, but these days I use the logitech MX keys. A pretty basic keyboard but it honestly works better than mechanical keyboards..
I have to keep several cables hanging around for my work (developing mobile apps) so I kinda just gave up on wireless for my daily driver/work setup haha. It also just kinda bugs me how wireless keyboards can sometimes take a beat or two to become usable when I sit down after being away from a while.
Are the MX Keys scissor switches? Scissor switch boards can be decent, I don’t particularly mind Apple’s external keyboards for that reason. It’s really just your typical rubberdome boards that feel terrible to use.
Not entirely sure what the switch mechanism is, but it feels a lot closer to the macbook keyboard than those OEM $10 keyboards. Slightly further travel and perhaps not quite as sharp of a click but still quite good.
I’ve got two iQunix f96 keyboards with wireless. They don’t do the f96 anymore but have the replacement being the f97.
Here’s one of the ones I have: https://www.thekeyboardstore.com/products/f96-kat-mechanical-keyboard
The other one is a different key profile but works well wirelessly.
Their site is https://iqunix.store/ if you’re looking for some wireless mech boards
Join us!
What kind of motorcycle(s) are you interested in getting?
Ah, the Ninja 400 is a great bike. You'll have a blast with it!
Tuono V4 is the best answer :))
(I own one, not looking back)
If I had a garage right now, I would include that as well but (un)thankfully, limited space means I have to keep my eBay motors browsing to a minimum.
What cars do you have on the lift now?
Another car person here.
I spend way too much money on project cars, fixing them up and then selling them for what ends up being a loss. For example, I'll buy a $900 car, spend $2k fixing a bunch of mechanical things, another $3k fixing cosmetic things, and this doesn't even include insurance, property taxes, plates, registration, regular maintenance, etc. And then a few years later, I'll sell the car for say $4-$5k, clearly at a loss.
This is even the case with cars I'm never going to sell. I have an older Toyota Tacoma, which I am not planning on selling. It's old and it has a lot of miles but I keep fixing and upgrading one thing after another. Most of these are things that add little to no value to the car that most people wouldn't care about. For example, the most recent purchase was the front grill because old one had started peeling off and looked out of place compared to the rest of the vehicle. So brand new front grille it is for $380!
Well, I probably should have been more clear with my comment. I wasn't trying to make a profit on my vehicles. Cars can be investment but in my case, I'm buying old Honda/Acura vehicles which aren't worth much in the first place. It's the restoration process and figuring out the problems that I enjoy when working on my cars. In other words, just a very expensive hobby.
I am a former motorcycle collector and have become somewhat of a car collector. Motorcycles are significantly cheaper!
My garage has:
2014 Honda CB1100
1995 Mazda Miata
1972 MG Midget
And my daily driver (lives outside of the garage) is a 2014 Subaru Impreza
If you can tell. I like small cars!
Records.
I do have occasional spurts of ADHD / broken reward mechanism driven spurts of researching stuff for weeks then buying them at a whim which gradually got me into this hobby.
It started at the beginning of pandemic. I upgraded my sound system to an okay thrifted Denon receiver and pretty decent open box Jamo speakers. It was meant for home theater but I figured record player would look nice. One Audio Technica LPWN40 later I got a couple of albums I've been enjoying at the time.
One thing led to the other and I started to look for some of my all-time favorites which was a bit tedious. It's kind of surprising how hard to get some stuff from popular artists is.
A piece of my collection was synthwave. As microgenre it's entirely possible to collect all of the foundational, best or personal favorites. I found a Facebook group for synthwave vinyl collectors where people discuss, trade and give each other heads up on new releases or re-presses (which can sell out within minutes). It can be a bit of a thrill to get a particularly rare record or a good deal.
My collection is now ~160 records, half of which is synthwave. It is nice to have a ritual around listening to music which requires some getting up to and commitment. It's a hit at the parties too.
I spent a bunch of money on record stuff only to not use it because I hate having to go tend to it every 20m.
This is why Images and Worlds album by Dream Theater is my most prized possesion. Somehow it is pressed to fit nearly half an hour per side.
Wow, I didn't realize that that was even possible. Do they just make the grooves narrower somehow?
It's just slightly more packed grooves, still plays fine on regular record players as long as they're set up properly. There are also some obscure formats designed for much more extended lengths like Trimicron:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual_types_of_gramophone_records
Thanks for not using the plural of the V word. ;-)
I'm up to about 1000 records and 2000 CDs and still adding more. What I am finding is that I don't even have to go looking for them anymore, now they just come to me. My friends know that I'm a serious collector, so when they have records they need to unload (or hear about a collection up for grabs) they come to me first. Last year I inherited about 300 records that were deaccessioned from my college radio station's record library. The year before that a friend let me take 65 records from a giant collection he has in storage. (links go to photos of the hauls.) It's fun when it happens but I'm running out of room!
Your collection looks awesome! I hope to have enough space for everything I want to collect.
Do you keep track of what you own? I use Discogs but for the rare instances where I have some old pressing of a vintage record it's really time consuming to identify it precisely. I keep it cataloged in case I kick the bucket so that my partner can sell it as she has no need for them and they're worth about as much as my car does haha.
I use discogs to track everything. I do take the time to identify the exact pressings, and if I find something that isn't already in the database I will submit it myself. (I used to be a very active discogger so I'm pretty quick with submitting new releases.) Like you said, it will be helpful for whoever is dealing with the collection if I drop dead suddenly, but it's also helpful for me to avoid buying duplicates. With a collection of this size it's impossible to keep it all in my head. I first started trying to get the whole collection in discogs back in 2013 and it took about four years of working on it in fits and starts to get it all done.
There are three groups of things that I don't have catalogued:
I’ve also gone face-first into vinyl in the last two-ish years.
I’ve had a record player for way longer, I just didn’t have the space to set it up, and I wanted to buy some premium speakers for it too. Then, I bought a house in 2021 and got the space, but had no records. Now, I’m pushing about 200 and counting (I’ve got a bunch on order/pre-order right now).
I feel the pain of this one, having "started" at the beginning of this year, but ramped it up a bit in the past month or so. I currently don't have much to show for it, but at least it's something.
Heck, I even went to a record store yesterday to buy a bunch of stuff. $700 later, and I only have about 2.5 inches of record thickness to add to that shelf.
One piece of advice is that everything gets repressed, eventually. It's not worth chasing rare copies most of the time unless you know there's slim chance for more new copies. And even then I was surprised more times than I care to count.
Knowing my personality, I am explicitly staying away from "collecting" old records. I drew a hard line because I know that once I start looking into first pressings and other rare items, that will just lead to frustration and unhappiness that I don't have a "complete" collection. At the moment, I'm just buying music/albums that I enjoyed when I was younger but couldn't afford due to being broke, or stuff that looks cool enough without worrying about collecting it.
Flashlights. Having a few around the house is useful, having 20+ is stupid.
I'm active on r/flashlight and budgetlightforum. It's a deep (but well lit) rabbit hole. It's also a fun way to tinker with stuff, putting lights together from parts or modding existing ones only requires pretty basic soldering skills.
Most people think of LED flashlights as cool bluish white, but there are a ton of different tint options, plus high CRI for nicer looking colors.
Think I just found a new hobby, ha. Feels similar to mechanical keyboards in a way. What’s an average cost for a fancy flashlight?
So the mod of r/flashlight and c/flashlight on lemmy maintains a list to direct new folks to. It's a good place to start.
I'd say $20 to $50 for a lot of lights. I'd imagine it's a much cheaper hobby than mech keyboards. I have a cheap mechanical keyboard but I know the good ones are $100+.
Thanks for linking that list - I’ve been avoiding reddit so this is helpful helpful :)
There's also c/flashlight on lemmy.world If you want to check that out.
It depends on how fancy you want it to be, because the prices can go as high as you want them to be.
If you don't want a torch which was forged out of star metal by the moonlight, though - if you don't care about hand-machined pieces - you can get most of them in the $15-$50 range, depending on which kind of battery they take, on whether they come as a kit with the battery, on their LEDs, driver, and the material they are made out of.
The Wurkkos FC11 is a pretty solid light, putting out 1300 lumen, and coming in at $26 for a light + 18650 battery kit. The Wurkkos TS10 comes in brass, costs about the same, and can put out as much light - for a much shorter period of time - with a 14500 battery and a smaller footprint, while the Convoy T2 is a bit bigger, much less fancier, and ~$15.
On the other end of things, you got things like the Convoy L7 or the Sofirn Q8 Pro, which come in at $100, or even the Acebeam X50, which goes for nearly $400.
Awesome! I’ll check those out. I’m a big fan of choose your level of investment hobbies, which is why this feels similar to mech keyboards to me. With keebs you can buy a ready made board, or go so far as to design your own circuit boards and hand pick components to make the board of your dreams (or whatever fits your super niche use case that’s not available commercially). Anyway, looks like I have a rabbit hole to go down!
Have you tried Saucony triumphs? If so, how would you compare the comfort?
Ultraboost really changed my life in terms of how comfortable they are. I tried All birds and they weren't nearly as close, even though everyone says they're also super comfortable.
I'm a sneaker collector as well though the majority of my collection are SB dunks and Air Max 1 & 90. I love having some beautiful and interesting sneakers to wear but man have I spent a lot of money over the years.
Generally fashion, I suppose. I’ve always been drawn to it as a means of self-expression, and as soon as my mom started letting me pick out my own clothes, my fate was sealed.
I’ve been especially focused on it lately as I just had my “30s crisis” and realized I couldn’t get away with certain things anymore (at least in certain combinations) without getting mistaken for a teenager and all that implies, as I’m very petite which makes me look super young. Many things have been rotated out of my closet or just repurposed so they need replaced.
It’s a lot of stalking thrift stores, eBay, my preferred brands for sales, etc. I’m not spending as much money it as many people, sure, but it’s way more energy than I’d like to spend on straight up buying shit for any hobby.
Watches and cologne for me. Both crazy expensive and basically pointless. 1 cologne and gshock should be sufficient but here I am...
Definitely dones(FPV). It started with a dji drone I wanted to use while I travelled and before I knew it I was building drones to fly fpv. A year later I needed a case for parts, now my entire closet is filled and I’m trying to find a place to hang them all.
Big, small, analog, digital, I realized about a year ago I needed to take it easy so I’ve been holding back buying parts I don’t have an immediate use for.
Fpv is an insanely expensive hobby if you don’t reign yourself in. Haha. I do love flying though. I don’t do anything with all the footage(other than hoard it) but it’s an incredible feeling unlike anything else. It’s like skateboarding meets an extreme sport where you’re at very little risk of hurting yourself.
These always look so cool, but I assume they were always more expensive than was practical. What is the best way to try it out?
Modular synth
I dont actually know how to play instruments, so I can't do anything with it.
Its just really fun to play around with electronic modules and feel like I'm fine tuning a complex machine.
If I had more discipline to actually commit to learning I'd like to get good at Wind Synth, but I've always had bad coordination and it's so frustrating to try and do things requiring manual dexterity.
Are you me? Picked up a synth case about a year ago now, and I've been playing with it a bit since then, but I have totally stepped on the G.A.S. and just bought the new Befaco 7U case to expand my rack. Bought a few modules you have to assemble yourself too, and now the hobby has gotten another layer of hobby too. It's great! Just don't look too closely at the impact it's had on my wallet...
I think the fact that I am not musically inclined is the only reason why I never started looking into these things, though the concept does seem quite attractive to me.
Not being musically inclined is exactly why I thought modular synth would be good. Maybe I can understand music as a circuit or something like that.
My CD collection which has resulted in me being in a weird in between space concerning how I consume audio. I don't have CD player and I can't remember the last time I actually listened to music from a CD but I instead rip my collection into high bitrate mp3s (not even lossless) and play them on my mp3 player (NOT A ZUNE) over decent but not high end audiophile gear.
My justification is that even to this day, I still find albums that aren't available on streaming services and the fact that I really dislike bluetooth audio and having yet another battery powered device that will die in a few years, creating more e-waste
Photography is my main hobby, but that's not pointless. I think the most pointless one I have had is headphones, specifically IEMs. Not that the hobby is pointless per se, but my effort at it was. I went down the rabbit hole for a long time before I finally shelled out some money. I bought 3 cheap IEMs around $20 each, then returned two that didn't fit me very well. I kept the third and found the sound quality so good that I just called it my endgame and gave up. I just couldn't justify spending hundreds more for an incremental boost in quality. Or at least that's what I convinced myself of. Maybe I would be blown away by $400 IEMs, but I didn't really want to find out because I can't be spending my money on that right now.
I got slightly sucked into the headphone hobby for a bit. Spent a couple hundred on some decent over ears and a few sub-$50 iems that are comfortable and enjoyable for me, so I stopped. Sound can be so personal and it felt like there was a ton of snake oil to wade through. Honestly, one of the best thing to come out of dipping my toes into the hobby was a cheap desk amp/DAC because it helped with cable management
Toy collecting, customizing and 3D printing. They go hand in hand pretty well.
I never grew out of toys - Transformers are probably my biggest collection but I also have a vast amount of 3¾" action figures including Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel, DC and many others.
A couple years ago Mattel started their Masters of the Universe Origins line, a return to the visual style of the original toy line from the 80s, but with the articulation of a modern action figure. I didn't like He-man as a child, it was a bit before my time, but with the release of Origins I've fallen in hard. I now own a modern Castle Grayskull and picked up a vintage Snake Mountain, albeit incomplete. Which leads to my other passion, 3D Printing.
I got my 3D printer shortly into the pandemic and it's become the most used appliance in my house. I've repaired a few pieces of furniture, designed wall mounts for TV remote controls, but my favorite thing is making custom pieces and accessories for my toys, so I've actually replaced missing parts for my Snake Mountain.
And there's a sizeable community of creators that do the same and offer 3D models to download and fabricate. I've even uploaded one of my own and have plans to upload more...
... When my life being a dad permits 😅
My mom collects Barbies. She has several hundred. They’re all still in the original boxes, and stored in huge plastic totes. She tracks them on a spreadsheet, and is constantly buying more.
I rarely leave a toy in is packaging for too long. For me the value comes from tactile interaction, fitting accessories into place, posing the figure, setting up scenes.
MIB collectors might be horrified at what I do. I customize my figures. In the past I performed an entire leg transplant on a Venom action figure because he didn't have knee articulation when that was otherwise the norm on the figures I was buying.
Yep, she would be absolutely horrified. My dad would take his stuff out of their boxes if had a place to display or arrange them, but he doesn’t so instead we have a hallway lined — on both sides — about halfway up the walls with boxed model farm equipment. Combines and rogators and tractors.
Movie Steelbooks. For some reason, I really, really do not like digital purchases of movies and TV shows. The idea that they can be removed from my library due to licensing fuckery and a host of other reasons doesn’t sit well with me. I like having physical copies that I know can’t be taken away and that I can rip, if necessary, to have digital versions. The metal cases and artwork are just a bonus and make for a nice display.
I homebrew my own beer, my beer is more expensive than the beer I can buy in a supermarket.
Wow how do you manage that? Im doing all grain beer brewing and my most expensive beer is half the price of a cheap beer in a liquor store.
I'm guessing it's the taxation we have on alcohol over here
I don't have a local homebrew store and most of the ingredients are imported so the price is way higher for fresher ingredients, I think sourcing yeast is the most expensive.
Bourbon.
I drink a lot less than I buy, but I like finding local offerings when I travel, and popping my head into mom n pop shops to see what they might have that I don't see often.
Looking for those unicorn bottles is a practice in fatalism, especially if you are only willing to pay MSRP, or a reasonable markup from that.
I feel like I enjoy buying bourbon more than I like drinking it! I just think it's nice to have a good selection when I decide to have a nip or two.
Most of them? I've got probably eight or nine mech keyboards... And only three desktops in the house, one of which has a permanent spot as the media center so it's got a K400 as it's daily driver... And that's without counting macro pads (five? I think.) Or the collection of key caps (I probably have more sets of key caps than boards but I just use my HyperX $15 ones)
But, I love to tinker, so I've got the shelf full of RC cars and more kits sitting in boxes... I've started putting them on the wall since the shelf I had dedicated to is full now. Of course, all my video games get in the way of finding time to spend eight straight hours cutting out sticker sheets, shout out to Tamiya for that, but I also love the intricate effort that goes into them...
Maybe the least consumerist hobby of mine is modding old consoles and primarily because those are mostly second hand. I've got two Wiis, two GameCubes (both purple as well), two PS1s, a PSone, two PS2s, two Xboxes, two NESes, a Genesis 2, a Saturn... You get the picture, there's a full whack of consoles there but every time I'm in the secondhand store, I bee line for the electronics again... I've got two Vitas for Pete's sake. Who needs that many? Just don't look at the pile of eight 2/3DS consoles (at least those are spread between old and new... But who needs two Old 2DSes?) I still consider this a consumerist hobby because I do buy new parts and mod chips for them.
Guess what? I also have a bike. Thankfully, space limitations right now constrict what I can do with that hobby... But once I've got the garage for it...
I have a couple of hobbies that would make no sense to normal people - I love replica props for Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu, and I have a weird obsession with laptop bags and all the different configuration and features.
Then I keep having bursts of hobbies that I buy too much into, then burn out and move on. Like building guitar pedals (now I have unmade kits and a pile of switches and parts laying about). Thee was a tarot phase, a couple of RPG phases, now I’m eyeing off Pokémon and LOTR cards for Magic The Gathering.
I've mentioned this around here before, but I collect playing cards. Yes, as in Ace through King, in Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds.. In the past decade or so, the market for high quality custom playing cards has dramatically expanded, leading to the creation of a number of large card design companies, as well as many high profile card designers. If you think that a deck of cards is a deck of Bicycle Rider Backs, or the local equivalent, then you'd be mistaken. Brands like Bicycle have released some absolutely amazing decks with gorgeous artwork and stamped foiling that are more like art pieces than game night items.
For me, there are a couple of attractions to cards as a collectable. First, they are (generally) inexpensive to get into. The current average price for a custom deck of cards is between $12 and $15, which feels way more affordable than collecting something like vintage guitars. I can afford to open a new deck or two every week without breaking the bank, but I still feel like my collection is growing. Second, I have a fascination with the mechanical and mathematical beauty of a deck of cards. There are so many possibilities expressed through 52 pieces, and that's kind of magical in and of itself. Third and final, as a medium of expression, there is guaranteed to be a deck of cards that suits you (yes YOU personally) and your tastes. I'm not talking some cheaply made but marked up in price souvenir deck either. I'm talking about a carefully designed deck that will match your sense of aesthetics and expresses a part of who you are.
I've heard it described as 52 pieces of art that you can carry in your pocket, and I agree with that. With over 250 decks in my collection, I can conclusively state that cards are an art form. I have decks that faithfully recreate the design of classic works of literature. I have decks that take after modern art design. I have decks that play with what we would consider to be "normal" playing cards. I even have a deck that derives its color exclusively through foiling, otherwise being completely black. The range and variety that exists is mind blowing to most anyone I share with about my hobby. "It's just cards" they say, "I never thought that they could be like this." Oh, but can and it does.
If anyone want to check out more about playing cards, try Theory11 for more pop culture related decks like Marvel or Stranger Things, and King's Wild Project for decks that are a bit more detailed and artistic. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
The other day I went to the grocery store and saw a bunch of differently themed Bicycle playing cards like Star Wars and whatever, and I actually brought up the topic of, huh, I really do wonder if people collect these things. Turns out they do. Thank you for your comment.
I think I know which one(s) you may have seen. Was it either one of these or perhaps one of these?
It was the red one! Damn, you do know your playing cards.
Not as much as some in the collector space, but I get by. Though in this case, I own all four variants (blue, red, silver, & black), so I made an educated guess. All four decks have the same faces, with the only major difference being the back design, back color, and the box the cards come in. I'm not even a Star Wars fan, but I do appreciate the quality of the cards.
Keyboards- 2 crkbd, Cornish zen, mercutio, discipline, kyria, Romeo, and a few others I’ve forgotten. The end game is the discipline for my game tower, the mercutio for my smaller machine that’s mostly for streaming in another room and light gaming, and the Zen for work/carrying around (which it is amazing for). Considering turning the Romeo or the kyria into my dedicated work keyboard but we’ll see.
EDCish - a STUPID amount of money over the years on optimizing my keychain, wallet, laptop, and a sling to carry it in, and then stuff to go in that. It’s at least mostly good quality long lasting stuff and I’m mostly at the end game with a notebook wallet setup I’m super happy with and a collection of stuff in the sling that is almost what ever I need. Including a tentable laptop (gpd pocket 3), mouse (ms arc mouse), and keyboard (the zen) along with some cables and adapters so I can hook up to basically everything
Any recommendations for EDCs? What kind of bag do you use for your laptop?
Decided to go overboard on answering this since i've put a decent chunk of time into it. I've got a decently unique setup, but I can at least attest to the quality of anything down here.
I have the Alpaka Bravo Sling , but of note my laptop is a GPD pocket 3, which is an 8 inch laptop. It does however fit perfectly in the sling.
It also holds:
And while i'm rambling, my favorite accomplishment was optimizing my wallet. It's just an Apex Slim with the dango notebook shoved in with some book darts on it, and either the liliput, fischer space pen, or the Aerocrafted Pen clipped on the outside (clip goes down the middle of the wallet).
Means i always have a notebook and pen on me and can find where i want to open to thanks to the darts, is smaller than many "edc/slim" wallets still, and my ID, Health insurance, car insurance, plus 6 credit cards, and some cash behind the journal all still fit in it (although it took some breaking in).
Thank you for your effort! I'm a sucker for compartments such as pouches and bags, and I will definitely bookmark this post to use later as a reference.
I really like the sling you mentioned. I have tried using slings in the past, but I found them to be either too loose (even after adjusting) or too bulky. However, the one you pointed out seems to be comfortable enough.
Are you familiar with the xreal airs / beam? With the gear you listed above, I’d imagine the airs would tie in nicely.
Thanks for posting the above, I enjoy seeing people’s setups. I also must add that I’m a fan of you comments, in general!
Interesting. I hadn't seen this at all. I'll have to look into it, as it's interesting tech.
Also not a problem, and thank you! It's nice to be back in a community where it feels worth putting effort into a post.
Sport climbing and bouldering... going up and down just for the view (if you're climbing outside) and loosing the skin on your fingers...
Shoes. I mostly have Vans and Nike Air Max, just because they're the most confortable on my feet, but with all the types and colours they make, a less careful man could easily go bankrupt. I'm currently looking at getting some Air Max 97 'Silver Bullets', but this time I want to wait until I actually need new ones.
Knitting. I have so much yarn, I don’t know what to do with all of it.
I bought a cedar chest to store it in a couple years ago, but it needs some repairs (broken hinges and a couple other things). Unfortunately, I don’t think my entire stash will fit in there anymore.
In my defense, I did get a large portion of my stash second hand at an amazing price, and most of the rest on sale.
Of the three hobbies/collections I have the most pointless is probably old video games. I have been collecting by buying from yard sales and from random people who call looking to sell something they found in their attic or basement for over 30 years. I have nearly 100 unique consoles (and of that 100 I have multiples of most). I have unknown, countless numbers of games, boxed and otherwise. I have run out of room in the room of the house I keep everything and have so many tubs and totes of games and consoles stored away. I will never get time to play everything. I do hook a random console up every now and then but time isn't that plentiful.
Collecting Robot Damashii UC Gundam figures.
They’re expensive, they mostly collect dust, you don’t even build them like gunpla, and they take up a lot of space. I can’t stop and I love them so much despite being little plastic things and loving “things” really is quite pathetic but I guess some people are just more susceptible to it. Ultimately I know they’re just these dumb collectibles that just end up in a landfill when I die and don’t give me “true” happiness and yet I keep buying them.
Gunpla. But I love my little robots. I love the cathartic pleasure of snipping them out of the riders. Delicately filing away at the bumb. The satisfying snap during assembly. Carefully placing the decals. Posing the final model along the line.
It's a very zen hobby. I've done many. I have about 10 in a stack next to my desk I need to assemble.
Watches!
Although thankfully I have been introduced to the Chinese homage community, so I'm able to get very solid quality pieces with very similar styling for thousands less than the originals.
Boardgames and TTRPGs, I’ve got hundreds of games in my collection. A lot of it was due to Kickstarter, due to the multi-year lag time between when you pledge for a game and when it actually arrives, but also there’s a good portion outside of it where I’d see a review or something on BGG and think, “Huh, I’ll try that,” and order a copy. Luckily I’ve been able to mostly kick my Kickstarter habit (I swear, I’m clean man, I’m just shaking cause it’s cold), though I still have quite a few games in the pipeline I’m waiting on. I rotate through a good portion of my games throughout the year, though there’s some large-scale multiplayer games I’ve not really gotten much play out of. I learned early on that I am just not going to have enough people together at once to play party games, so those ones I’ve been trying to work out of my collection.
Gunpla. They're so intricate, and painting them is a very zen sort of experience. I paint by hand, it takes a while but something about doing it allows me to just focus on that and nothing else. That fact was what allowed me to use that hobby to help get out of a pretty dark place.
Bandai does dumb shit with the premium shops and jp-only releases that means sometimes the cheap plastic is very much not cheap, but as an occasional thing, I'll get a p-bandai release just to have something I know is a lot less common. I especially like finding old, smaller-scale figures and painting them - there are a few product lines from years ago, where you could get various mobile suits in a 1/200 form factor, and I had a ton of fun making these really detailed.
It's not the most expensive hobby in the world but it can get there depending on what you're wanting to do. I experimented a bit with things like Black 3.0 (an attempt to get vantablack) and color-changing paints, those can be a bit pricy. And it is all of course, plastic, which we could do with less of in general.
What do you use to paint by hand? I'm interested in painting my beyond just panel lining, but every time I look up info on model paints and gunpla I mostly find people talking about air brushing and I have no desire to airbrush. The most I want to do is go outside to do a topcoat.
I want to do the painting on the desk in my living room is possible. So I'd be interested to hear what tools/paints/equipment you might recommend.
For sure! It's pretty simple/straightforward. Some simple practice is to go buy some plastic spoons, prime them, and paint on them. In general, stick to acrylics. You can use stuff like laquer and oil based paint but you need to be very particular so you don't end up enshittifying the plastic.
I mostly get Tamiya acrylics, they tend to be fairly cheap, huge variety of colors, and the colors themselves are matched up with a lot of Gundam stuff. Each gunpla kit comes with an instruction book, and on one of the colored pages you'll see paint swatches, they match exactly with Tamiya's colors. I'll use some thinner (also made by Tamiya, but any thinner that's ok with acrylics is fine), and the goal is to be able to do a coat with as few brush strokes as possible. It takes some practice but with a good ratio of thinner and a steady hand the paint will settle smoothly. One thing to look out for - if you paint, it dries a bit, and starts to crinkle, your environment is too cold.
With brushes it's similarly simple - just have a tiny one for very small details, a somewhat larger one for bigger panel pieces, whatever feels comfortable/achieves good coverage to you. You want to avoid a situation where because your brush is too small, you're having to work extra hard to cover bigger panels, and with that there's risk of areas looking different from each other. Top coat is going to even this out a little but it's better if you have a larger brush/fewer strokes.
One thing I do that I don't see folks mention often, is I use powdered pigments to create weathering and then "seal" it in with the topcoat, and I do battle damage by heating metal to dig into the plastic. For the former, you take an old/worn out brush (because this is going to ruin it) and just go ham dusting the pigment on it. Practice a little with that and you'll see how it goes, it's very easy. The difficulty is in not touching the thing while you do that/smearing pigment everywhere. I'll brush the pigment on, usually some black and brown, and then I also have a fluid that's meant to look like engine oil I'll brush onto little parts here and there.
For battle damage, I have an old dental hook that I heat up and dig it into the plastic. it's really easy to make things like bullet holes/deep gashes with a curved tool, any metal tool can serve the purpose. With the damage done, you can paint over the damaged parts with silver, then again with some black and brown pigment to make it look weathered/realistic. I don't tend to do weathering until everything else is done, I go in this order: Prime, Panel line, Paint, decals, damage, weathering, topcoat. A tip for weathering that really helped me out, was to imagine the mobile suit doing something in particular, and then do weathering/damage to reflect that event.
Here's an example of one I did a few years ago that someone actually ended up purchasing: https://imgur.com/a/biAKBVi. I heated an old dental hook with a lighter to dig in the bullet holes/shear off bits of the plastic on knees. For the weathering, I imagined it was a grunt suit toward the end of its operational lifespan, the suit of an old veteran. I also learned with this one, if you apply a topcoat in a very cold environment, it comes out all crunchy in a really cool looking way. I'd also strongly recommend using water-slide decals and practice a bit with them. They are a pain in the ass at first but when you see the finished product you will never go back.
Edit - one last thing, panel lines. There is a black liquid called Mr. Weathering that can make panel lining extremely easy. The cap has a plastic brush inside it, you just touch the edge of that to the beginning of a line and you can see the liquid just flow/fill in on its own. You can then take a q-tip and wipe off the excess if it's too much. This saves an incredible amount of time, can't recommend it enough.
Someone has already mentioned photography, but to add to that: film photography. It's expensive, I don't make any money from it, I don't share my photos anywhere and they're not even good... but I still love doing it.
Stuffed animals. They're lined up under my monitors like a little fluffy army. Trying to keep the selection small but it grows every time I find a cute squishy friend (damn you etsy and Instagram creators)
Yeah, I have a collection and it's becoming a problem... Bought a Ikea multi-tier kitchen cart thingy, and I keep the small ones in that.
I collect indie perfume. I prefer perfume oils to the standard eau de parfum type that is sprayed, and it seems like these little companies focus heavily on oil. They also tend to be much more interesting and unique, plus I like the opportunity to support small businesses and individuals rather than global conglomerates.
I have fragrances ranging from marshmallow roses to haunted libraries and all kinds of others in between. One current favorite starts out with a cold blast like freezer air, and then settles into vanilla ice cream, waffle cone, and flowers, while another is like a sunny field of dandelions - warmth, dirt, grass and all.
I do have misses occasionally (the hazards of buying perfume online) - a recent one was like getting kicked in the face by a sweaty donkey with manure on its hooves and flowers in its mane, and I don't think I'll ever be brave enough to try wearing it!
There was a vibrant community around this hobby on that other site, and I'll miss it. It's almost impossible to find written reviews that aren't located there, but I guess that just means I might end up with some unexpected gems!
That's real interesting. The only time I shopped small business perfume oil on Etsy was for dupes of famous premium cologne brands that I can't afford, and since I can't afford the original, I of course had no frame of reference as to how close it got besides "oh I guess it smells expensive, I'll wear it". Maybe I'll try some original scents from now on.
Mechanical keyboards, videogames, and magic the gathering for me. Currently rocking a novelkeys 65% board with lavender switches and a thanos keycap set. I also have a metal novelkeys 60 with I think black inks that my wife uses, and that one has LOTR dwarven script keycaps on it. The other keyboard I have is a HHKB with GMK panda switches, but I don't like them so I haven't been using it, and I like my lavender switches too much to bother putting something else in it.
Watching TV! I recent found out “The Bear” came out with a new season. Took me a day to get through a full season. It’s was very entertaining. I enjoyed it but at the same time, what did it add to my life? I could say I now have an enhanced appreciation of those who work in the service industry but at the end of the day I probably find life more worthwhile without TV by using that time to focus on other things.
I am trying to get into keyboards too but the keycap group buy that I'm in keeps delaying the release date. I'm also having some trouble getting the board that I want. So that's mostly on hold.
My real useless costly hobby is collecting figures from anime and games. I made a spreadsheet over the weekend actually, and it really shocked me how much I've already spent on something that's just decorative. It's the shipping cost (and taxes) that adds up really quickly since the items are fragile, massive and heavy. I really love the community though and I started learning photography to showcase my collection. :)
I've been rotating out around 3 of them for the past few decades--comics, pokemon cards and sci-fi model kits/figures/ships (Robotech, etc).
I do my best to fight the urge since I had kids but now that they're older and we share so many hobbies I've been using that as an excuse to give in a little more here and there.
Thankfully the 3d printer helped scratch the sci-fi figures and ships. Comics shops come and go around here so its relatively harder to keep up with consistantly. We gave up on Pokemon for a bit because it seems like every time we go to a store there's some new version out which is a bit of a put off. When we started like 10 years ago it seemed like we could go 6+ months of getting a few packs a week before a new set would appear. It was fun surfing the common bins for 10 cent cards "just because" and we would often make alternative rules decks (no evolutions, HP under a certain amount, etc).
Mechanical Keyboards went that way. The GMMK Pro is actually my favorite of what I have, nice heavy aluminum fraim with Durock Dolphin switches, which are heavy as hell and dead silent.
I bought a bunch of orthos (2 plancks, 2 planck clones, Preonic, 4x6/5x6 Nyquist, id75 v1, id75 v2) and a Ergodox EZ and some Chinese 60s (DZ60 and a YMDK minila setup), but only use the GMMK Pro because it is perfect.
My keyboard habit went out of hand because I was hunting for the best setup as an interface and ergonomics, but ironically went back to square one with the GMMK Pro.
I colllected a hoard of yoyos but lost interest in buying more. I have some great ones, they all have cool stories, but it got to be enough that I burned out.
Same with rubiks cubes. I have everything from 2x2-11x11, shape mods, cuboids, non-cube puzzles, and backed off buying those, as well.
I feel these "collections" are complete so I've stopped consuming as much but these are three phases.
Warhammer and miniature painting.
The emperor does not protect the wallet.
Recently the Digimon card game. It's the first TCG I've ever gotten really into and it's also really hitting my nostalgia. Funny thing is I've probably spent more on merch than on the cards themselves. (plus all the card accessories themselves). I'm filling my room with plushies and figures just because.
One plus side of it is that it's helped me leave the house to play in tournaments and socialize, so I suppose it's not entirely pointless, but I still spend way too much on it.
I have an unhealthy habit of buying random computers/phones etc, restoring them or making them so they are at their top performance, and then giving them away or selling them at a loss.
One month it's industrial fanless PCs, the next it's military laptops with extremely proprietary hardware that's impossible to find, the next it's "retro" pcs that are in those beige cases.
It slowed down recently as I started reading books more, like sunrise to sunset reading and nothing else..
Most of mine have been shared in here already, those being: mechanical keyboards, audio gear (headphones with required DAC/amps), and games.
These aren't so much pointless as I do enjoy them and I use them all to varying degrees, but obviously you can't meaningfully use a dozen or more keyboards or headphones at once. I have found that once I found and purchased exactly what I liked (the so called "endgame"), I haven't felt the need to spend any more on keyboards and headphones.
collecting crystal specimen
I was going to build/buy a good keyboard but keycaps is where the whole thing falls apart for me. How are people spending that much on keycaps? WTF!?
The one I have is the GMK Awaken set, which was themed after Cyberpunk 2077. Although it was more than a hundred bucks, it was absolutely a joy to use, and dare I say, quite beautiful. I think it was worth it, but I don't think I'm gonna do it again.
It did, and to a degree still does, bother me that some of these key sets are so expensive for "just some plastic" (well usually plastic), but the customization and small production quantities of these will keep them from being cheap if they are high quality. The fact is that you can get quite nice key caps for a cheap price compared to how it was when I started this hobby, but if you want a specific set from a specific brand, it can be wildly pricey. As long as you aren't concerned with that, it can be very reasonable.
Gundams for one. I have about a half a dozen I need to build, 2 are fairly pricey Master Grade. I've told myself I can't buy more until I finish the ones I have.
I'm a former professional master seamstress. I've had my own businesses as a designer/seamstress from 1982-2013. After I retired, I stopped sewing but I didn't stop buying fabric. I have a fairly large stash of fabrics, saris, trims and buttons. I retire from my current job early next year and hopefully start turning into wearable fabulousness.
I'm obsessed with removing consumerism from my hobbies, which in itself turned out quite a hobby. Free as in beer, free as in speech, ad-free, sustainable, independent, and so on.
Which had and continues to have its expenses.
Which is ironic, I know.
Now you have me curious. I can think of many examples, but what are your hobbies now?